Dr. Ayman Shabana.
Political science professor and African affairs expert Dr. Ayman Shabana said Ethiopia would face difficulty seeking international loans for the Renaissance Dam because it would have to demonstrate domestic public consensus. He argued that ongoing protests prevented such agreement and indirectly benefited Egypt.
Speaking to Mohamed Al-Mughrabi on Al-Ghad’s “An Hour from Egypt,” he said the project lacked local support, particularly in the Benishangul region and among the Oromo, an ethnic group he said represented around 40 percent of Ethiopia’s population.
Shabana called allegations that Egypt was behind the widespread protests illogical. He noted that Egypt’s Foreign Ministry denied Ethiopian media claims of an Egyptian-led foreign conspiracy to stir unrest and stop the dam, while emphasizing that events in Ethiopia were an internal matter.
He said ministerial-level Egyptian-Ethiopian negotiations had reached no decisive result and criticized the Foreign and Irrigation ministries’ handling of the issue. He called for presidential intervention and an internationally supported initiative that could be pressed on Ethiopia, saying soft mediation would achieve nothing.